A Collection of Heartstopper Oneshots

Love Language - LillyDolittle

Summary:

Hugs were always Nick's love language. So how does little Nicky feel when he learns that boys don't hug boys?
Notes:

I am trying to get back into writing. It has been so long since I have been on the platform as a creator.
I started writing this before I read the web comics, so Nicks grandparents are not alive in this version.
Work Text:
When Nick was little the world was full of warm hugs. His mom, dad, grandparents, friends, even his older brother all more then happy to wrap their arm around him when he was feeling sad, or happy, or sick, or just because. Little Nicky always loved the feelings of being cocooned in the healing heat of the people he loved.

Slowly the arms that once held him close started to disappear.

It started with his Dad leaving the family to move back to France. He didn't see Papa for almost 9 months after, and when the two finally re-connected there was a hand on his shoulder and a ruffling of the hair, but no hug to greet him.

Next was David. It was his brother's first birthday after their dad had moved. Mom went all out and threw him a big party in the back yard with all his friends. Nicky has saved up all his allowance to buy his brother something special, something from him and not from Mom-and-him. When the time for opening gifts came, he handed his brother his gift anticipating the joy David would experience opening it. When the gift was unwrapped his brother looked at it and smiled, but nothing like what the little boy was expecting. But that was okay, David was really missing Papa so of course he was a little sad. When his brother said thank you for the present, Nicky went to give him a hug, only for David to push him away.

"What are you doing?" David asked surprised.

"Just wanted a hug." He was confused.

That was when he learned that big boys don't hug other boys. The other kids at the party confirmed this new information, and now that Papa was gone, Nick wanted to be a big boy for his family.

At school on Monday, he talked about it with his friends, and they all agreed, boys don't hug, that's something girls do, not boys. And another source of hugs was now lost to Nick. But it was okay, boys could still hug their parents and grandparents they all said.

Over the years his family grew smaller, one grandparent being lost to heart attacks, another to cancer. Until finally at the tender age of 12, his mom was the only one left that still hugged him.

Nick started to forget the comfort that the simple touch once held. He was by no means touch deprived, or at least he would not say so. He play-fought his guy friends, sat shoulder to shoulder with Imogene, and got tackled a lot in rugby. And if he felt deep down inside that something was missing, he never thought to examine what that could be. He never thought to wonder why his heart ached when he watched movies and saw the easy comfort two friends in the show had with wrapping their arms around each other. Movies were fiction, real life was not like that.

Then one day in year 11, he looked up from his desk to see Charlie Spring. Charlie with this curly hair, infectious smile, and small (but fast) frame. Charlie, who awoke something in him long dormant.

When he taught the younger boy how to tackle it was fun, but not enough. When Charlie covered his mouth to stop him from complaining about loosing at Mario Karts, it was marvelous, but not enough. When they lay side by side talking in the snow, Nellie curled up between them, it was wonderful, but not enough. Charlie was quickly becoming his best friends, yet deep down he started to suspect that it wasn't enough.
The night came when Charlie fell asleep beside him as they watched TV; his hand outstretched between them on the couch. The heat radiating from it as his own hand hovered above, the feeling of comfort just within his reach. Yet he pulled away.